Univision Radio History.

[mrtejano]

If I remember correctly most of the stations that Univision owns here where owned by EL DORADO COMMUNICATION I'm talking about the 80s and 90s. Then there was LATINO BROADCASTING CORPORATION when UNIVISION bought them out. Well La Major 104.5 always says KTBZ HD 2 A LATINO BROADCASTING CORPORATION STATION. Are these the same people that Owned the previous LBC? And if so are they some kind of sponsors for the Guevara Family? Or is it just a coincidence??

Or was the previous owners named HISPANIC BROADCASTING?

 

[davideduardo]

If I remember correctly most of the stations that Univision owns here where owned by EL DORADO COMMUNICATION I'm talking about the 80s and 90s. Then there was LATINO BROADCASTING CORPORATION when UNIVISION bought them out. Well La Major 104.5 always says KTBZ HD 2 A LATINO BROADCASTING CORPORATION STATION. Are these the same people that Owned the previous LBC? And if so are they some kind of sponsors for the Guevara Family? Or is it just a coincidence??

Or was the previous owners named HISPANIC BROADCASTING?

Univision, a TV only company, merged with Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation in 2003. HBC, in turn, was the product of the merger between Tichenor Media Systems and Heftel Broadcasting in 1997.

The Houston cluster was created by the Tichenor family company, starting with the purchase of KLAT from Marcos Rodriguez, followed by the purchase of 93.3 from Gulfstar in 1995.

Further acquisitions were KQQK (Now KOVE) bought from El Dorado in 2001 and KAMA bought from Roy Henderson in 1997. From 1995 to 2008, Tichenor / HBC / Univision owned the 980 station licensed to Rosenberg which had been also owend by Henderson.

 

[mrtejano]

Univision, a TV only company, merged with Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation in 2003. HBC, in turn, was the product of the merger between Tichenor Media Systems and Heftel Broadcasting in 1997.

The Houston cluster was created by the Tichenor family company, starting with the purchase of KLAT from Marcos Rodriguez, followed by the purchase of 93.3 from Gulfstar in 1995.

Further acquisitions were KQQK (Now KOVE) bought from El Dorado in 2001 and KAMA bought from Roy Henderson in 1997. From 1995 to 2008, Tichenor / HBC / Univision owned the 980 station licensed to Rosenberg which had been also owend by Henderson.

Thank you so to answer my own question, it was HBC so it has nothing to do with LBC. I couldn't remember if they were both HBC or LBC.

 

[purpledevil]

To add to David's great information: KLTN was originally owned by Dave Morris, as "KQ 103" which was a longtime Standards station with the calls of KQUE. Yep, that's where the calls were first born in this town. In 1997, Morris sold his combo (1230 KNUZ was his AM) to Clear Channel, and it changed to "102-9 The Planet" with a modern Adult Contemporary format and a new call set of KKPN. Clear Channel spun it off to Heftel Broadcasting in '98, at which point the Regional Mexican format of "Estereo Latino" moved from the aforementioned rimshot KQBU to KKPN. That happened in May. A couple of days later, it switched calls from KKPN to KLTN and the rest is history. It became the #1 Spanish language station in the market pretty quickly, and never looked back.

Another interesting tidbit for you, Señor. At one time, KQUE (at 102-9) was Houston's "superpower" facility. It once ran around 250,000 watts of power, iirc. You were once able to hear KQ 103 clear up to Dallas, before their co-channel signed on and KQ downgraded. David, if you could expand on that, I'd appreciate it. That's getting to be many years ago now, and it's getting harder and harder to recollect as the years keep progressing.

 

[mrtejano]

Yeah I have heard of that, why did they downgrade? That would be awesome if many stations had a full power like that and be heard in different cities rather than each city having individual stations. Of course that wouldn't happen because advertising issues.

 

[davideduardo]

To add to David's great information: KLTN was originally owned by Dave Morris, as "KQ 103" which was a longtime Standards station with the calls of KQUE. Yep, that's where the calls were first born in this town. In 1997, Morris sold his combo (1230 KNUZ was his AM) to Clear Channel, and it changed to "102-9 The Planet" with a modern Adult Contemporary format and a new call set of KKPN. Clear Channel spun it off to Heftel Broadcasting in '98, at which point the Regional Mexican format of "Estereo Latino" moved from the aforementioned rimshot KQBU to KKPN. That happened in May. A couple of days later, it switched calls from KKPN to KLTN and the rest is history. It became the #1 Spanish language station in the market pretty quickly, and never looked back.

Another interesting tidbit for you, Señor. At one time, KQUE (at 102-9) was Houston's "superpower" facility. It once ran around 250,000 watts of power, iirc. You were once able to hear KQ 103 clear up to Dallas, before their co-channel signed on and KQ downgraded. David, if you could expand on that, I'd appreciate it. That's getting to be many years ago now, and it's getting harder and harder to recollect as the years keep progressing.

I forgot to add the change of KLTN from 93.3 to 102.9. Many will remember the billboards with morning guy Raúl Brindis "walking" up the dial to 102.9 with cut-out extenders above the top of the billboard frame. A similar, but live action, version was used on TV to promote moving up the dial. The replacement "international" format on 93.3 was a real bomb.

When 102.9 wanted to move transmitter site, it lost its grandfathered status and had to conform to the normal criteria for its class. It had been 280 kw but only at 500 feet, which was actually worse coverage-wise than any of the current Senior Road full C facilities.

 

[purpledevil]

Thank you, David. The difference then, was there was nothing on 102-9 between here and Dallas, giving it a clear shot up 45. I can only imagine what KLTN would be capable of nowadays with the added height, even with the reduction to 99.5kW, if the co-channels like KDMX didn't exist.

I do need to amend what I told mrtejano. As I said before, the years are really starting to fade together and the details are being lost along the way. Dave Morris did not directly sell KQUE-FM & KNUZ to Clear Channel. In reality, he sold them both to SFX Broadcasting, who in turn relegated KQUE to 1230 and launched "The Planet" on 102-9. Clear Channel then bought out SFX, which led CC to be over the limit in facilities down here. That is at which point CC unloaded 102-9 by selling it off to Heftel, dropped the original KQUE format from 1230, and simulcasted 93-7 KKRW on 1230 until it was sold to Liberman early this century.

As I recall, when KQ was moved to 1230 in '97, it was well within the top 10 in the market. Might have been as high as 5 or 6, I just don't remember. There certainly was a large outcry over the loss, as the more mature listeners of KQUE had no tolerance or use for The Planet at all. Once it was moved to 1230, it fell off the map and I don't think ever cracked the top 20 again. This led Chancellor Media to break up the KKBQ AM/FM combo it had and launch Standards/Big Band on 790, with new calls of KBME (still in use today), as "Unforgettable 790, the Best Music Ever". I believe Laura Morris was the first PD for KBME.